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Monday, July 12, 2010

World Gods

Ptah, the patron deity of artists and craftsmen. His cult believed he created the world, the gods and all living things by uttering their names, according to the dictates of his heart. An instinctive ubergod, one might say, a panster.

From Tutankhamun: His Tomb and Its Treasures, published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, New York, edited by Katherine Stoddert Gilbert, ISBN: 0-394-41170-6.

A beautiful book with 100 full colour plates as well as 103 in black and white taken by Harry Burton at the time of the tomb's discovery. Included are photographs of a number of the exquisite but lesser items found among that golden, cluttered magnificence.

(Art books such as this are not only a valuable research tool for those seeking an accurate details for their fiction but are also instructive on many levels. I didn't realize, for example, that the boomerang is not exclusive to Australia, and was used by hunters of that era among the Nile marshes.)

All writers are Ptah initiates, are world builders. Though we usually think of world building to be a function of fantasy and science fiction, I think the Ptah effect applies whether a writer choses to delineate a small contemporary town, a medieval castle or a setting of international intrigue The mechanics and challenges are simply more apparent in fantasy.

High fantasy/SF involves the creation of a total world, from geophysical features to political structure, language, religion, etc. and etc.

Urban fantasy tends towards the development of a society within a known and existing world. The mores, the social constructs, the anthropology of a specified and alien group: the dynamics of a wolf pack of shapeshifters, the conventions governing vampire interaction. A fascinating world within a world, so to speak.

What is not so often explored, except in generalities as a useful conflict, a background canvas, is the style in which the larger, conventional world reacts to these subcultures. And that reaction is one thing I have tried to reflect in Dark and Disorderly.

Can anyone suggest other urban fantasies/paranormals which integrate the "normal" world with the paranormal? Beyond nightclubs run by vampires, that is?

Apologies: While I was offline, my gmail was hacked, so many of you have received spam. I'm very sorry.

24 comments:

I think urban fantasy is generally an alternate reality where society is rather like our reality, but with paranormal entities going on.

Much of urban fantasy deals with outsiders' reactions, I'd say; but what Ithink you're getting at is where the outsider is the one whose perspective is carrying the story. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is "Benighted" by Kit Whitfield, where the majority of society IS werewolf, and the outsiders are the normal humans, the barebacks. Fascinating book and very well written.

Perhaps I've been reading the wrong novels, Written, but my impression is that many urban fantasies deal mostly and internally with the paranormal culture and the reaction of the non-paranormal culture is often merely a jump-off conflict point.Hamilton, for example, does mention various bits of legislation that affects her vampires and vampire hunting in general, which I find most intriguing.

You're right about many of the UF's having little about the 'mundane' point of view or reactions, which is why I was assuming you referred to a point of view character who is not part of the paranormal. That isn't that common to me, as it seems (to me) that the fun of an urban fantasy is that you are in the paranormal scene with the characters and not on the outside, looking in.

I think what you say about Anita Blake stories about external stuff like legislation and how it affects the paranormal world is very important. There's a lot of it out there in other urban fantasies, but mucyh of it is more window dressing IMO than crucial to the plot. If those elements throw wrenches in the works, it's pretty cool.

For examples of that, I just recalled Mercy Thompson series has Mercy and crew dealing with congressional hearings and the politics of the fey being out in the open--which affects the plot in every one of the four or five books in the series.

Marjorie Liu, I think, World of the Lupai series or something like that) where child custody issues cross pollinate with werewolf politics and police procedural.

I'll show you all my Egypt photos on my laptop. But, honestly, the books are better than seeing the real things in the museum (except that huge gold mask of Tut) because they have them in cases and frequently in dimly lit areas where you cannot see them that well. They do proper lighting for a coffee table book. Which is why I always, always buy the collection books at museums like the Met, Louvre, d'Orday, and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Well worth the pricey cost. I actually spent more on books in Egypt than I spent on all the loot (except for the hand carved stone statues!)

In my childhood, we went on a school field trip to see the treasures of Tutankamun in NYC. I only wish I'd been a bit older--I think I would've appreciated it more now, y'know?Sorry about the hacking. That totally sucks.